I finally figured out why my rear tire kept losing air on the #7 highway last August

Was riding from Vancouver out to Hope on a Sunday morning, tire pressure light came on around the 40km mark. Pulled over, checked the valve stem, nothing obvious. Kept having to stop every 15 minutes to pump it up. Got to a little gas station in Chilliwack and an old biker dude told me to check the rim tape. Turned out the tape had shifted 3 years ago when I got new tires put on and the spoke holes were rubbing the tube. Has anyone else had rim tape issues from a shop install?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas_johnson18h ago

Oh man, rim tape issues are the worst. I had a similar thing happen on my old KLR after a shop changed the tires. It drove me crazy for weeks, kept thinking it was a bad tube. Finally found the rim tape had bunched up right over a spoke hole. I actually ended up just replacing the tape myself with some heavy duty Gorilla Tape after watching a YouTube video. Worked way better than the original stuff, never had another flat from that again. That old biker in Chilliwack knew his stuff, glad you got it sorted before it left you stranded for real.

riley_coleman13h ago

Oh man, @thomas_johnson you just reminded me of my buddy who tried the Gorilla Tape trick on his dirt bike but used the wrong kind. He grabbed the stuff with the cloth backing thinking it was stronger, and it ended up peeling off inside the tire and turning into this sticky mess. Wrecked two tubes before he figured it out. That old shop trick with the masking tape and rubber cement is actually solid advice for a quick fix, my grandpa used to do that on his old Triumph back in the day. I swear half the battle with tubed tires is just getting the rim prep right the first time so you don't spend all season chasing flats. Glad you got yours sorted too, nothing worse than a mystery leak that only shows up miles from home.